Orange County Soccer Club beats Las Vegas to snap losing streak
The losses kept mounting, and the season looked like it could possibly slip away.
The Orange County Soccer Club came into Friday night’s United Soccer League match against the visiting Las Vegas Lights FC on a three-match losing streak. This, from a side that had lost just one of its first nine matches.
“I think it was difficult with the two games that got postponed [earlier in the season], because then they get rescheduled into those weeks where we actually had a bit of a break,” Orange County coach Braeden Cloutier said. “Of course, it’s difficult. We didn’t think this was going to be easy, though.”
Playing against Las Vegas, the last-place team in Group B, helped Orange County get back on track. The hosts turned to a Darwin, and now they hope their season evolves into making the playoffs for the third straight season.
Speedy striker Darwin Jones scored his first goal of the season for Orange County in the 63rd minute, and it held up in a 1-0 win at Championship Stadium at Orange County Great Park.
After winning its final regular-season home match, Orange County (6-4-3) now has 21 points and remains in playoff contention with three matches remaining. The top two teams in Group B will advance to the postseason.
Orange County moved into a second-place tie in points with L.A. Galaxy II (7-5-0), though OCSC technically sits in third place since “Los Dos” has more victories. San Diego Loyal SC (5-4-4) is in fourth place with 19 points.
“We’ve had a lot of games in a short amount of time,” Jones said. “We’re just trying to find our rhythm ... just trying to survive, pretty much.”
Las Vegas (2-8-3) did not do itself any favors by earning two red cards in Friday’s match. The first came in the 29th minute, when Jones took a ball over the top from Michael Orozco and got behind the defense. He was pulled down by the Lights’ Mobi Fehr, and the visitors went down a player following the red card.
Las Vegas’ Seth Moses earned his second yellow card of the match in the 59th minute, and he was also sent off.
“No game’s easy,” Cloutier said. “We learned that the hard way, obviously, in Sacramento, going up a man and them going down a man [in a 2-1 loss on Sept. 9]. Obviously, we wanted to space it out and we knew we were going to create some opportunities if we could just shift them around. We shifted them around and actually created a really nice goal.”
Four minutes later, Orange County did find the back of the net. Sean “Ugo” Okoli made a run up the left side before crossing it to Jones, who stuck it in near the right post.
“It was a great run from ‘Ugo,’ a great pass and I just finished it off,” said Jones, who had nearly scored about 10 minutes prior before Las Vegas goalkeeper Edward Delgado stopped his point-blank shot in the box. “All the credit goes to ‘Ugo’ and the team for that. I just was really at the right spot at the right time ... [but] it does feel good. I needed it.
“We’ve been trying to find a good formation for us all, so I feel like we got what we need, and let’s keep building off these games.”
The match got very chippy, with nine cards issued, including four to Orange County. But Jones’ goal was good enough for the hosts to get three points.
Jones exited in stoppage time and was replaced by 15-year-old Francis Jacobs, a Laguna Beach resident who made his professional match debut. When Jacobs signed with Orange County in August 2019, the then 14-year-old was the youngest player to sign with a professional U.S. club.
Orange County returns to action with a match at the first-place Phoenix Rising FC (8-2-2) on Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m. Orange County then concludes the regular season with away matches against L.A. Galaxy II on Sept. 30, and Las Vegas on Oct. 3.
“It’s really important we get a good week of training this week,” Jones said. “It’s our first time having a week in between a game. We look forward to the next match and we’re just taking it one at a time, really.”
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